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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 120 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  21. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  22. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  24. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. clip — for paper
  3. trunk — of a car
  4. chest — of your body
  5. trunk — of an elephant
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. squash — to crush
  8. clip — a video
  9. row — to paddle
  10. clip — to cut
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. squash — the sport
  13. chest — a box
  14. squash — the vegetable
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. lash — an eyelash
  17. mine — for digging
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. chest — of your body
  21. mine — belonging to me
  22. lash — a whip stroke
  23. trunk — of a tree
  24. lash — to lash out

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com